The pre-seed round, which was also supported by lobal early-stage venture capital firm Antler, has successfully closed as the company’s AI-native debt recovery technology accelerates deployments with Australian lenders and collection agencies, including autonomous agents handling conversations for a national collection agency.
The capital will be used to grow the team and operations in Australia while exploring partnership opportunities in the United States, where US$880 billion in household debt is in some stage of delinquency, according to New York Federal Reserve data.
OpenDebt was co-founded by CEO Norman Yan and CTO Jonas Tischer, who between them bring experience across debt collection, consumer lending and AI engineering.
The company’s platform deploys autonomous agents to handle debt collection conversations, embedding regulatory compliance, identity verification, hardship detection and human handover directly into the agent workflow.
The approach positions compliance as a foundational layer rather than a bolt-on, with the system designed to follow regulatory guidelines throughout every interaction and escalate to human operators when conversations require sensitive handling.
“An unpaid account doesn’t tell you why someone hasn’t paid,” says Yan.
“Some people are ready to resolve it but want a simpler way to do that. Others are experiencing hardship, have a question about the balance, or need to speak with someone.
“OpenDebt exists to help lenders and collection agencies respond to those different circumstances, cost effectively and at scale.
“That means straightforward resolution through voice AI agents or other digital channels where appropriate, and a clear path to a trained person when someone needs help.
“Making those conversations more affordable makes it possible to offer better support, and more efficiently recover debt even on small accounts.”
The platform is already live with a national collection agency and has secured multiple ASX-listed customers within six months of operation, according to backers.
On the technical side, Tischer says building reliable AI for regulated financial conversations presents challenges beyond standard chatbot deployment.
“Getting an AI agent to speak naturally is only one part of the challenge,” says Tischer.
“It needs to work with accurate account information, stay within the client’s approved terms and respond appropriately when someone raises a dispute or reveals financial difficulty.
“We’ve built on the compliance and quality framework we developed supporting debt recovery specialists.
“We use that to assess how the AI handles conversations, where it needs to stop and bring in a specialist, and whether the handover gives that person the context they need.
“That’s the work behind making these conversations reliable at scale.”
Blackbird Ventures partner Samantha Wong says the firm backed OpenDebt because of the founders’ deep domain expertise and their insistence on solving compliance before scaling AI capabilities.
“Norman brings insider knowledge, while Jonas has the technical ambition to reimagine how the industry works,” she says.
“That combination got us excited. With OpenDebt, Norman and Jonas built the compliance framework before they built the AI.
“They’ve found a way to reach accounts the industry had quietly written off because they simply cost too much to pursue, delivering a standout AI solution in a market that is notoriously hard to build for.
“We have huge conviction in this team and their future. We are proud to back their ambition to build a new model for debt recovery, founded in Australia with serious global potential.”
Antler partner Michael Kron says the startup’s early commercial traction stood out.
“The OpenDebt team has a deep edge, extensive financial services experience and has moved at impressive speed,” says Kron.
“Their vision has quickly evolved from agent-assist for collection to an autonomous AI-native debt collection technology, acquiring multiple ASX-listed customers in just six months – a top-tier pace in a highly regulated and compliance-focused sector.”
